Seminar Series – 7 July (Fr)

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SymbNET Seminar Series

Monthly seminars on host-microbe symbiosis, genomics, and metabolomics, with two talks from SymbNET researchers.

The seminars are open and free to all, but registration is required.

Please register once for the entire seminar series.

REGISTER

 

7th Jul 2023

14h00 WEST // 15h00 CEST

@FCG-IGC Friday seminar (Hybrid: in-person and online)

If you want to attend in person, but do not work at the IGC or ITQB campus, please register and send an email to [email protected]

 

Speaker: Nancy Moran

Affiliation: University of Texas at Austin, US

Title: Investigating bacterial gut symbionts of bees

Abstract: The social corbiculate bees include honey bees, bumble bees, and stingless bees. Besides sharing the trait of eusociality, corbiculate bees share similar gut bacterial communities, containing several bacterial species that have co-diversified with their hosts and that live only in bees. These bacteria were recognized relatively recently, and have been characterized in the last decade. Results of lab and field experiments, mostly on honey bees, support a role of this gut community in defense against pathogens, stimulation of the immune system, digestion of dietary plant polysaccharides, and regulation of metabolism, development and behavior. Besides affecting host biology, the members of the bacterial community have many antagonistic interactions among themselves, mediated by different secreted effectors. This talk will give a brief overview of the approaches used for studying bee gut communities, and of some major findings to date.